Now vroom up to your Capital rooftop car park

Bogged down by parking woes in Delhi? Cheer up, for you can use your rooftop to park your car.

The improbable can be possible once new buildings are constructed with increased floor area ratio (FAR) as provided in the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD), 2021.

Considering the scarcity of parking space in the city, a recent DDA board meeting agreed to allow people to carve out a rooftop 'garage'.

Parking woes? Residents in Delhi will now be able to park on their roof after a recent DDA agreement

The Capital has 72 lakh vehicles, the most in any city in the country. More than 31 per cent of these are cars.

According to the state transport department, the city adds 1,300 vehicles a day. Parking related brawls have become frequent in residential colonies across the city. Till now, there is no such provision of using the space on a rooftop as a car park in Delhi.

According to officials, these parkings will be in addition to the available stilt parking on the ground floors. The fact that the city lacks parking space due to unplanned construction came up in the board meeting.

Overcrowding: Many cities in India have parking problems due to the number of cars on the road

It was decided to keep a provision of additional parking space to avail the increased FAR, up from 250 to 350, according to the MPD 2021. Rajesh Gehlot, a DDA board member, said thinking out of the box was necessary keeping in mind the availability of more floor-area ratio.

'If a building has three-and-half floors, it means there will be many cars to be parked. Where does the space come from? It is the responsibility of the people to arrange their own parking space,' Gehlot added.

Other officials said, through this provision, commercial as well as industrial lands could benefit by using the space on the rooftop which otherwise goes unused in most cases.

Planning experts said this was a feasible idea and would help sort out the parking crunch to some extent.

'It (rooftop parking) is prevalent in countries like England. The design of a building will require certain changes to sustain the heavy load of vehicles at the rooftops,' said Prof. P.K. Sarkar of the School of Planning and Architecture.

GARAGE WITH A VIEW

The special parking will bein addition to the available stiltparking on the ground floors

Decision taken based on anincreased floor area ratio inMaster Plan of Delhi, 2021

According to MPD 2021, the maximum FAR is till the level of 350 for a residential plot size up to 100 square metres. It means a three-and-a half storey building can be constructed on a plot size of 100 sqm, according to the new norm. For areas ranging between 100-250 sq m, the maximum FAR is 300.

According to existing norms, 1.33 ECS (equivalent car space) is needed for parking in the plot sizes of more than 200 sq m. Now, for plot areas ranging between 200-300 sq m, two ECS will be required.